In Blackest Night
by Dead Reckoning
Summary: Irma has been acting strange for the past eight days. She's quiet, inattentive, withdrawn. Her friends just thought it was the stresses of school and Guardianship. But when she goes missing for three days, did she run away, or is it something much worse?
1. Crisis Rise

Chapter 1:

Crisis Rise

"_Don't worry, baby. Everything is going to be all right now, darling…" She knew that voice. It was so familiar, so close, but yet so far from having a name. "Shh…" She could feel a hand on her face, caressing her cheek, sliding down her neck, and lingering to trace her collar bone. "I'm going to make it all better." _

_She suddenly felt a pressure on her, but not an all-encompassing force. She tried to move, but she was trapped. She had been all along. And she couldn't even think of moving when the pain shot through her._

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><p>Irma awoke with a start and managed to stifle the blood curdling scream that threatened to rip through her. She put her hands to her face and wasn't surprised to find sweat seeping through her soft skin, even though she was shivering from a chill that seemed to come from her bones. She wiped her eyes and was relieved to see the Kamilla and David Addams posters still checkering the walls. It meant that she was home. It meant that she wasn't in that strange place with that strange voice and its strange touch. She took a deep breath and sank back down onto her bed. This was the eighth night in a row that she'd had the same dream, and in the eighth night in a row that it horrified her. Afraid to sleep, terrified of dreaming, she simply stared at her ceiling until her alarm went off three hours later.<p>

* * *

><p>Irma and her friends went through a relatively normal day at Sheffield Upper Institute, with one exception. The girls' history teacher—they had each managed to schedule at least one class with a fellow Guardian—decided that now was the time to assign a ten-page Wars of the World paper, in which each student was to pick a war and study some small aspect of it. As everyone else freaked, Irma feverishly wrote notes and started brainstorming. She had to find something, anything to keep her mind off her dreams, which seemed to be all she could think about anymore. So she was happy to be given such a huge assignment, which would end up counting twenty percent of her final grade, no less.<p>

And so her lunch period—her favorite class, since the Upper Institute didn't offer Recess—found her at the library, organizing and categorizing her brainstorms into a more workable list.

Her absence was not unnoticed. "Where is Irma? It seems so quiet without her," Will noted.

"More importantly, I still have my dessert left. I almost don't know what to do with it," Cornelia chimed in. Hay Lin gave a small chuckle and nodded her head in agreement, excitedly finishing her pudding.

Taranee rolled her eyes. "I'm starting to get worried. Irma's been acting really strange over the last few days… I hope she's all right."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Taranee. She's probably just worried about finals coming up." Everything stopped. Forks and spoons clanked on lunch trays. Defenseless food dropped to the table. Everyone looked at Will and knew she had to have bumped her head somewhere.

"Okay since Will obviously ate some bad pudding, I'm going to go find Irma." Taranee rose and left. The last place she'd think to look, which happened to be the one place she didn't look, was the library. She thought she had exasperated all her resources, and it was time to go back to class. Fortunately, her next class was English. With Irma.

They took their seats next to one another, and Taranee wasn't surprised when Irma gathered her notebook and pen, but she was more than shocked when she actually started listening to the professor. And Irma could have knocked Taranee over with a feather when she actually started taking notes. "Irma? Are you all right?"

Irma nodded and refocused her eyes on the professor. She didn't want to have another one of those awkward conversations in which she couldn't voice her real fears. Irma expected a note, but was more interested in what the professor had to say. She was in the middle of assigning a short paper on Sophocles' _Antigone_, Irma's personal favorite from the reading list. Irma intended to make it a long paper. Anything to keep her occupied.

She was a little caught off guard when a piece of paper slid on her desk. She opened it and read, 'Irma where were you at lunch today? We were worried.' She scribbled back, 'In the library,' and slipped the paper back where it started. She happened to glance over just in time to see Taranee's eyebrows furrow. She even noticed Taranee stare at the paper and mouth, "Excuse me?"

While Taranee was busy trying to process three words, Irma was already on her second brainstorming session of the day, and was doing great work at that. When the teacher was done lecturing and the bell rang, Irma was the first one out the door. She had to shake Taranee, and when she saw the students left in her wake, she knew she did a good job. She smiled as she headed off to Advanced Algebra, her last class of the day. Hay Lin was her only friend in the class, and she knew well enough to stay away from Irma when she was feeling like this. Irma couldn't help but wish for more friends like her Hey-Hay.

And so it was that Irma went through her Algebra class, taking perfect notes, quietly solving problems, and just being a model student until that bitter-sweet moment when the final bell rang, and the girls were let free to roam Heatherfield as they pleased. Irma had other plans. She was heading straight home to start on her projects and study for her finals, even read ahead for next quarter. She was getting ready to try and fry her brain to the point where she would never dream again. Irma knew it was a tall order, but she also knew that she would do whatever it took to stop those nightmares. Correction, that nightmare.

She needed to act fast. She didn't drive her car today, so she had to make a quick escape. Irma rushed through the front doors of Sheffield Upper Institute and was halfway down the block with no intentions of stopping when she heard the shouts she dreaded. "Irma? Hey, Irma! IRMA LAIR!" she heard Will scream behind her.

'_DAMN IT,'_ she thought as the girls and their respective boyfriends rushed over. Irma sighed heavily and tried to put on a happy face while the couples chattered amongst themselves on their way. She thought about turning and running away, but that would cause even more suspicion, which she did not need right now.

"Hey, Irma! Uh, how was school today?" Hay Lin asked tentatively.

Irma'd had enough. She raised an eyebrow. "You tell me. You were there." She crossed her arms and saw Eric tighten his grip on his girlfriend's hand as her lips trembled. She also noticed her other friends purse their lips, almost like they were holding something back. "Okay, if there's something you guys need to say to me, I suggest you talk now because I'm leaving in five, four, three, two—"

"You know what? FUCK THIS!" Cornelia erupted. "Irma, we have been worried sick about you for the past week. You've been quiet, nice, accommodating—the complete opposite of how you used to be and damn it we want to know what the Hell is going ON with you!"

Will tried to explain. "What Cornelia means is—"

Irma shook her head. "So there it is then… I'm going home. I have two papers and six more assignments." She turned around and started to walk away, but then she turned and said, "You wouldn't understand anyway… Just don't worry about me, okay?"

She left her friends frozen on the sidewalk, stunned. She knew she had been harsh, but there was just no way she could make her friends understand what she was going through. She had done a complete personality shift… and over some dreams? Irma couldn't believe it. Irma wouldn't believe it. After she fried her brain tonight, she decided, she would make a conscious effort to go back to the funny, spontaneous, carefree Irma that her friends knew and loved.

As she started to concentrate on her steps, Irma realized something was missing. She dug through the side pockets of her backpack and found her iPod. Favorite song, repeat, volume up. _'Much better,'_ she thought. While she nodded along and hummed to her preferred Kamilla tune, she didn't notice that another set of steps had started to keep time with hers.

Irma rounded a corner and did notice a strange shadow behind her, but she chided herself for being so silly. Heatherfield was a big city, so there were people all over the place_. 'No need to spaz out over one shadow,'_ she chastised.

And yet she couldn't shake that overwhelming sense of foreboding that crept up on her. Irma had realized over her years of being a Guardian that her intuition was far better than everyone else's, but she rationalized her feelings as being yet another product of her recurring nightmare. _'Nothing to be afraid of,'_ she tried to reassure herself. Her heart wouldn't listen. It kept pounding and pounding, until she couldn't even hear her iPod anymore. She shook her head and took out her ear buds.

This time, Irma started to notice the unfamiliar steps. She tried something. She stepped. He stepped. She stopped. He stopped. She turned around, but she couldn't see anyone. Okay, her mind was playing tricks on her. She had just been hearing things. That's all. The phantom steps were just that. Phantom.

She swallowed deeply and started whistling another Kamilla tune. She didn't want to go back to listening to her iPod in case something WAS wrong, but she couldn't just walk in silence, either. _'Almost home, great,'_ she thought as she noticed the street sign a few neighborhoods from her own. She quickened her steps in response and hoped this irrational fear would melt away when she crossed her threshold.

She smiled as she thought about home. Things hadn't been so great in the last year and a half, but she didn't mind. Her father Tom had made Lieutenant and was working more than ever at Heatherfield Police Department. Sure, he wasn't home so much, but he always had the best dinnertime stories when he was there.

The only thing that had been troubling the Lair household was her step-mother Anna's new business. Anna—Irma never called her mom—had always had an eye for colors, patterns, and designs, and so she had decided to turn it into money. She opened up her own interior design firm, right out of their house. The only thing worse than random strangers appraising Irma's dirty room, her appearance, and her overall character, were the nights that she had to listen to Anna's sulking if she didn't meet that day's goal. For her own sake, as well as that of her step-brother Chris—better known as runt—Irma hoped her mother more than exceeded today's expectations.

Irma also couldn't help praying that Christopher had more than enough homework to keep him busy until suppertime. Ever since Irma had gotten her car—a new-to-her 2006 Honda Accord—as a sixteenth birthday present, Chris was always bugging her for rides. One of the conditions of the gift was that Irma had to oblige him in most cases, and furthermore run errands for her dad and step-mother when they needed her. The plus side, in addition to the overall freedom of a car, was that her curfew had been extended to ten o'clock on school nights, as long as she could show Anna that her school work was done—no matter how poorly—and she called Tom to let him know where she was. Considering how paranoid her father was about his "little baby girl," those were big concessions.

She remembered then that she hadn't told Tom that school was out and she was heading home. Irma knew that her father would think she had detention, so she reached in her pocket for her cell phone and sent her father a quick text. He replied instantly and hoped she'd had a good day. Irma couldn't help but smile. No matter what he was doing, Tom would drop everything for his first and only daughter. She couldn't say the same for her step-mother. It was always, "Hold on, I'm comparing swatches," or "Just a second, this fabric doesn't feel right." It was one of the many reasons they weren't as close as other step-mothers and step-daughters, and to be honest, Irma didn't even feel any love loss. Irma remembered her mother very well and was devastated when she died, so she always looked to Anna as a stranger, and that was not going to change.

Thinking about all that had made her forget her present settings. She didn't notice when her steps slowed down or when the stranger's had sped up. She didn't hear it when he had caught up to her. She only knew something was horribly wrong when she felt her backpack being ripped away from her. She gasped just in time to feel something slide through her arms. She stumbled back as the person pulled, and crashed into his chest. Before she could think to do anything, before she could release the scream that had been building all along, a hand crushed her mouth. But she still tried. She moved and screamed desperately, but it did no good.

As she tried to make sense of what was happening to her, the man pulled her back, and she felt some kind of pressure change. She couldn't even get a bearing on where she was, because her eyesight had suddenly… disappeared. Irma was now blind, and terrified. The only relief she could claim was the movement of the hand from her mouth. She was finally able to scream, to cry for help, to beg for mercy… but no one answered. Not even the man who was kidnapping her.

She closed her eyes tight and tried to keep the tears back. Tears meant she was really afraid. Tears meant that there was really something wrong. That this wasn't a dream. Tears meant that something awful was really going to happen to her now.

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><p>Please leave a review.<p>

Thanks so much,

Dead Reckoning


	2. Phantom Child

Chapter 2:

Phantom Child

Tom and Anna Lair sat in his Captain's office. Tom was clutching his hat in his hands. He was in full patrol uniform and was only able to spare his lunch hour to meet with his wife and supervisor. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe his little girl was gone. She couldn't be. She was just pulling an elaborate ruse. _'Just a hoax. A trick. A Halloween stunt… a month and a half late. Irma's weird like that. She got that from her mother… God I wish Gabrielle was here. She would know what to do. She would know where to find our daughter.' _Tom gasped quietly. Had he really… Did he really just wish his dead wife was here? He hadn't thought about her in at least six months. _'It's natural. It's completely natural. Our only child is missing. She's so much like Gabrielle… It's only natural to wish her mother was here to find her. That's all.' _He swallowed hard.

His reaction hadn't gone unnoticed. His second wife, already in pieces beside him, looked up at her husband and wondered what was on his mind. She knew from his years on the police force—eighteen, to be exact—that he was thinking of all the gruesome things that could be happening to his daughter. His baby. His world. Anna could always see it in his eyes. No one, not her, not Chris, not his dead mother or his long dead grandmother, could take Irma's place in his heart. No matter what he was going through, Irma could fix it. Anna remembered the worst day of his career. The day he found the dismembered remains of a mother clutching her child… He was absolutely devastated, until Irma came home. All it took was one hug, one whisper in his ear from his little girl, and he started to get better.

Even now, as her step-daughter was missing and possibly dead, Anna couldn't help but recall her feelings of jealousy for the girl. The smiles Tom gave her were genuine. He was always happy to see her. Lately the looks he gave Anna seemed to be obligatory. Ever since she had started her business, their relationship hadn't been the same. Tom had leaned on Irma a lot more, and Anna hated it. She was his wife. She was the person he should be counting on. She was the one who had given him her best years. Irma was still a child. But Anna knew she was defeated. Irma was his pride and joy, no matter what she did or didn't do.

Irma—just by being herself: cheerful, spunky, carefree, and funny—naturally reminded Tom of the best years of his life. The year that he met Gabrielle. Their first dates. The night she got pregnant. Their wedding. His first years on the force, when everyone called him 'Robocop.' The name stuck, but for different reasons now.

There was no way Anna could compete with Irma or the memories she resurrected in her husband. Anna had met Tom at the beginning of his end, and while they were happy in their marriage, with a son and successful careers, there was no way Anna could make Tom as happy as he was with Gabrielle, or as happy as they'd been after they first had Irma.

It didn't help that Irma never tried to get closer to her, despite Anna's attempts. She tried to take Irma shopping, to the park, ice skating, all with no luck. She even offered to take a mother-daughter gymnastics class, since Irma had done gymnastics all throughout her childhood. All she ever got was a polite 'No, thank you, maybe next time.' After a year of this same ritual, Anna decided it would be wise to just give up. Irma didn't even call her Mom. Or Mother, or Step-Mother, or anything even close. Anna. That was her name, and that was the name Irma used to address and refer to her.

And yet she was as heartbroken as anyone over her step-daughter's disappearance. She had thought things were getting better over the last year. At least between Irma and her. Irma had opted to take all Advanced classes—to please Tom, no doubt—and was doing very well. She maintained a solid B+ average, enough to make the Honor Roll, even.

Anna and Tom knew she worked extremely hard to make those grades, and to be more responsible around the house, to make up for those few months when she was thirteen—the beginning of her being a Guardian, unknown to them—when everything seemed to go wrong with her. So that was one of the major factors in Tom's decision to buy her a car. They knew she wasn't a bad kid, and that she wouldn't abuse the privilege. And so far she hadn't. She didn't even take her car with her on this latest trip to God knows where. Anna sobbed as she realized she might never see her step-daughter again… outside of a body bag, at least.

Tom put his arm around his wife and looked up in time to watch Captain Logan Reynolds finish reading the missing person's report. "You say the last time anyone has had contact with your daughter was at three-thirty pm on the day in question, right Tom?"

"That's right, Captain. Irma was walking home from school, since she didn't take her car that day, for whatever reason. The last point of contact I can establish from her, to anyone, was a text message she'd sent me, letting me know she was on her way home… I canvassed the whole neighborhood, all the neighborhoods, and no one has seen or heard from her since."

"Do you still have the messages in your phone?" Logan asked. Tom nodded and handed over his phone. Reynolds looked through it until he found what he was looking for. "Sheffield Upper Institute lets out at three, am I right?"

"Y-y-yes," Anna choked. "But we live, f-forty-five m-m-m-minutes walking distance from the school…" She finally let out a wail. "And I should have gone to meet her! I'm such a bad mother!"

Tom pulled Anna into his chest. Partially to comfort her, but mostly to keep her cries from engulfing the police station. He whispered to her, as reassuringly as he could, that she was a great mother and had done nothing wrong. "You know this, Logan; there hasn't been a crime in the area of Sheffield since… Ever?"

"You're right, Tom. There would have been no reason to suspect anything could go wrong on her walk from school, given the route you relayed in the missing person's…"

Just then, another officer walked in and handed Logan an evidence bag, which in Heatherfield was an extra-large brown paper lunch bag with special labeling. "Thanks, Bobby," Reynolds started, and started reading the labels. His eyes grew wide, and he frantically opened the bag and rifled through the contents. "This changes everything," he murmured.

"What is it, Logan? What's wrong?" Tom asked. He was worried. Logan didn't usually take any evidence that didn't belong to the case at hand.

"Tom, do you recognize any of these things?" He first pulled a turquoise knapsack from the bag.

"Yeah, yeah that's Irma book bag; she keeps her schoolbooks in it… Where did you get that?"

"How about this?" Logan then retrieved a cell phone and an iPod with a Kamilla sticker on it.

"That's her cell phone! A-an-an-and her iPod!" Tom stuttered.

Anna finally looked up. "Yes, those are her things! Where did you find them?" she asked hysterically.

Logan swallowed. "These were found in the last area she was seen. She was about two blocks from your home. Everything was strewn about… Like I said, this changes everything."

"She didn't run away…" Tom ventured.

"What? What do you mean? I don't understand," Anna replied, confused.

Logan and Tom sighed at the same time. "If she had run away," Tom started, "she would have at the very least taken her cell phone. Since she didn't take any of the things that she went to school with, it means…" He suddenly choked and tried to blink back his tears. His daughter was in real, serious, tangible danger.

"What it means is," Logan continued for his friend, "that she was likely abducted. Sixteen-year-olds do not leave their cell phones and iPods behind if they run away."

"OH MY GOD SHE'S BEEN TAKEN!" Anna screamed.

"It's going to be okay, Anna…" Tom started. His voice was shaky and strained, but he continued anyway. "We're going to get her back…"

* * *

><p>It had been over two days since Irma went missing, and the remaining Guardians were losing their minds. Where was she? Where could she have gone? When did she leave?<p>

Why did she leave?

The fact that their best friend could have been abducted hadn't occurred to any of them. Any of them, that is, except Hay Lin. That was the idea that Hay Lin held close to her heart. She hoped, no she KNEW that Irma would never have left Heatherfield on her own. She had an important job to do. She was a Guardian of the Veil. She had amazing friends. She was going to a great school, and she was doing really well. In Higher Level classes, at that. She was two quarters away from being a Senior and one school year away from being a graduate. She had a car, and relaxed rules. She had a father who idolized her, a brother who adored her, and a step-mother who… Well they weren't enemies.

Why would she leave all that behind?

The Air Guardian's friends were not thinking so clearly. At least Hay Lin didn't think so. "Where would she have gone? Oh, I know, she lived in another town before Heatherfield, right?" Will started.

Hay Lin sighed heavily while rolling her eyes, and her friends noticed the annoyance in her voice. "No, Will, that was Taranee. Irma has lived in Heatherfield all her life. We grew up together, remember…?"

"Jeez Hay Lin, she was just asking a question," Cornelia defended. "And, well… this is going to sound crazy, but do you think she maybe ran off with a guy or something? I know she still has a little crush on Andrew Hornby?"

"Andrew Hornby…" Hay Lin mocked sarcastically. "The SAME Andrew Hornby that sat happy-go-lucky through all our classes, and didn't even KNOW Irma was missing until someone TOLD him about it… in SIXTH period? Come on, Cornelia. Think."

Cornelia pursed her lips before making her reply. "You know, instead of shooting all our ideas down, you could at least TRY to come up with some kind of explanation. At least we care enough to brainstorm."

Before Hay Lin could retort—she was already turning bright red and was about to let it all out—Taranee interjected. "What if she just ran away?"

"What?" Will asked.

"Think about it. Guardianship. School. Brother. Step-parent. It's a lot to handle. What if she just… got tired of it?"

"That actually sounds like something Irma would do…" Cornelia said softly.

"She wouldn't run away," Hay Lin murmured inaudibly, "She wouldn't run away, she wouldn't run away…"

"Hay Lin are you trying to say something?" Will asked. "I see you mouthing words, but nothing is coming out."

Hay Lin licked her lips. "What if she was taken? I mean, what if someone kidnapped her? It doesn't make sense… I just, I mean… I'm trying… I just… I know Irma wouldn't run away. I know it. She is my best friend in the whole world. In all the worlds. We know everything about each other—"

Cornelia started, "Maybe not—"

"She WOULDN'T just disappear like this… And did you even think to ask why she had been acting the way she was acting the week before? You just jumped to conclusions. That's why you're thinking the way you're thinking now. You aren't taking everything into account. Irma has a point-of-view, too, girls, and you're ignoring it."

Hay Lin walked away from her friends, leaving them in stunned silence.


	3. Return

Chapter 3:

Return

Irma was shaking, and her feet felt like they were made of solid lead. Her breath was staggered, and her heart was pounding. She couldn't believe where she was. She was less than a block away from her house. Just a few short steps, and she would be home. "Home." The word was so strange on her lips now. She hadn't been home, or anywhere remotely close to it, in more than three days. As she approached the corner of her street, a sudden thought made her choke. _'I hope Daddy won't ask too many questions… I hope he doesn't find out what really happened…' _She stopped as the tears stung her eyes. She bit her lips and vigorously wiped them away.

But this brought up something important. _'What am I going to say to them? I've been gone for God only knows how long… How the Hell will I explain this? …Um, um… I ran away! Yeah, that's it. I ran away… And my phone, my iPod, my things… I didn't want anyone to track me!' _Irma sighed softly. _'Let's hope they're too caught up in my being back that they don't ask.'_

Irma wanted to make sure that her parents weren't too wound up over this. She carefully snuck around to the back of her house, and used the bushes below the windows to creep around to the front. She was just below the living room when she dared to look. Irma saw her parents, and she saw that they were stressed out.

She saw Anna sitting on the couch, rocking back in forth. Irma could tell she was crying into her hands, her forehead leaning into her crossed fingers. She was shaking, too. Irma looked around for her father, and found him when he passed by the window. She ducked when she thought he saw her. But in truth he was not even close to being with his wife or inches away from his daughter. He was pacing back and forth, imagining all the horrible things that were happening to his first-born. He was trying to figure out a scenario that would NOT bring his child back to him in a body bag, and he was not doing well. Irma knew that look, and she knew she needed to stop his pain.

Irma swallowed hard as she crawled through the rest of the bushes to the front door. The sudden lack of foliage felt cold on her skin, and she started to hug herself. She let her arms linger when she thought of what she was about to have to endure. The questions. The assumptions. The stares. She wasn't ready for any of it, but she knew that she had to go through it at some point. _'Better now than later,' _she thought, _'at least I will get it over with.'_

Irma left her left hand clutching her right elbow as she brought her right hand to the heavy steel knocker. Everyone always used the doorbell when seeking entry into the Lair residence, but Anna liked the way the knocker looked against the door. She felt like she was using the last of her strength to bang the steel against the solid wood beneath it. She bit into her lip hard and looked down to her right as she felt the door swing open. She didn't look up into the silence that followed.

She swallowed as she felt a pair of thin hands grab her shoulders. "Oh, honey, is it really you?" Anna said to her. She smelled the faint scent of familiar perfume as Anna pulled her close and hugged her. "OH, I've missed you so much! Are you all right?" Anna didn't wait for her to answer. "Tom! TOM! TOM SHE'S HERE!" she cried at the top of her lungs.

"What?" Irma heard faintly. That meant he was far away, in the den probably. "What are you carrying on about? Who's at the door?" Anna pulled her in and kicked the heavy door shut. "IRMA?" She heard heavy footsteps gaining speed as they approached her. "Oh, baby…" Irma felt herself being ripped away from her step-mother as her father took her into his iron grip. "I've been so lost without you." He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. "I'm so glad you're home." He kissed her cheek. Then the other cheek.

Irma smiled weakly. This was actually a lot calmer than the reaction she was expecting, and she was relieved for that. Hopefully Anna and her dad would not be thinking clearly enough to ask her where she'd been, or why she was looking so rough. Her clothes had several tears. Her skin was scratched and bruised. Her body was home to various spots of caked blood. Irma wouldn't have had the slightest clue as to how explain these marks without revealing anything.

But then came the question she was dreading. "Irma Tiffany Lair, where have you BEEN?" Tom asked. His voice was even, but Irma could hear the roar beneath it.

"Tiffany?" Anna asked incredulously. However, she shook her head when she remembered that—although no one ever mentioned it or even acknowledged that it existed in the first place—Irma did, in fact, have a middle name. Anna even doubted that her best friends knew that. "Never mind me. Where have you been, Irma?"

A now familiar lump started to form in her throat, and her voice was barely audible as it shook through her mouth. "I-I-I don't want to talk about it, please… I just… I just… I…" Irma was surprised when she had to bury her face in her hands to keep them from seeing her cry.

"Shh… it's okay, sweetie. I'm sorry I was so hard on you, Irma," Tom comforted he brought Irma close to him. Normally, she would have felt so safe and secure in his arms, but after what she'd been through, she feared she would never feel safe again. "What is it you want?"

"I just… I need to… I just want to take a shower and go to bed," she replied meekly.

"That's fine, sweetheart," Anna said, pulling her step-daughter away, momentarily, to hug her. "You've probably been through a lot these past three days."

Irma blinked. So it had just been three days since she was taken. It felt like so much longer. But she guessed that given everything she had endured, time just seemed to drag much more slowly. She smiled weakly as she looked at her Dad. "Thanks, Dad… I'm going to try to get some rest now, is that okay?"

"That's just perfect, sweetie," her father replied.

* * *

><p>Irma pulled herself up the stairs with what she was sure was the last bit of her muscle. She was going forward now by sheer force of will. She had to make it to her bedroom and gather her things. Whatever she did, she could not sit down. She might not get up again.<p>

She made it to her bedroom and took off her socks and shoes before gathering her longest pajamas. The sleeves covered half of her hands, and the bottoms almost covered her feet entirely. She couldn't let Anna she her bruises. And she wouldn't let Tom see them. Irma sighed heavily. She'd made it past her parents. And it was all because she couldn't handle it when they asked her a simple question. She literally broke down in front of them. _'I can't be so emotional anymore,' _she thought despite herself.

She swallowed and left her bedroom. She hadn't even made it across the hallway when she heard her father's voice coming from the living room beneath her. "I'm worried something AWFUL has happened to her, Anna. Did you see the way she lost it when we asked her where she was? She is emotional, but… come on. And did you get a look at her clothes? There were rips and tears all over them. A runaway wouldn't have had those kinds of cuts in his clothes after just three days…"

'_SHIT,' _Irma yelled at herself as she stopped listening. She hadn't even been close to throwing them off the trail. In fact, she'd driven them nearer to the truth. _'What the fuck am I going to do now?' _she asked herself as she banged her fist against her forehead. _'Take my shower. That always helps me think. I'll figure something out.' _She was able to calm herself with this thought and stepped silently into her bathroom.

She turned on the water, cold at first, and then warmer. She found a temperature that she liked and started the shower. She took off her shirt and the tank top beneath it. She pressed her hand to her body as she felt a strange sensation in her stomach. It felt like something had pressed against her ribs, from the inside. She brushed it off and unbuttoned her pants. She slid them off and was left in her bra and underwear.

Irma looked down at herself. Underneath her clothes, her body was a patch work of contusions and blood. She couldn't find a spot where she didn't have some kind of mark. Irma couldn't stand to look at it anymore. She hurried into the shower and let the water consume her. She felt better already, just being beneath the water's flow.

Irma was in her element now, and she let it take control of her. She let the warm water run over her and take the blood with it. She tried to imagine that it was taking those horrible memories with it. She closed her eyes as she tried not to remember…

His touch, that voice she still couldn't place, the shadow. He would never let her see him, except in silhouette, and so to her he was nothing more than a malevolent shadow wraith whose only purpose in life was to cause her pain. He hit her. She cried out. He touched her. She tried to move away from him. He was suddenly on top of her. She tried to escape, even though she knew she was trapped. She had been cornered this whole time. He crept closer, and even though she couldn't see his face, she could still read his intentions. Her lips trembled, and she murmured softly, "Please, don't… I'm a virgin." She begged for her purity, and he took it from her. Brutally.

Irma opened her eyes as she forced herself to crash into the back wall of her shower. She needed some real sensation to snap her out of this. She banged her fists against the wall behind her. "Snap out of this…" She sighed heavily and let her head droop to wet her hair. She grabbed her shampoo and squeezed a huge gulp right into her head. Irma let the shower current stream over the front of her body while she lathered her hair. She had no idea how much she had missed this feeling. She let the shampoo linger for a few moments as she reached for her shower poof and soap. She breathed deeply to savor the smell of her soap. The smell of clean. Then she looked up at her collection of body washes and shampoos. She noticed something. Eucalyptus spearmint sugar scrub. "Calm the mind," it read.

She knew it would sting, but maybe that's what she needed. Maybe she needed something to be so momentarily painful that would snap her out of her flashbacks and into reality as it was right now. She swallowed and sighed. She rinsed out her shampoo and slathered on the leave-in conditioner so she would have no distractions. Irma reached for the bottle of sugar scrub and pressed out a huge amount of the product on both her arms. She used her hands to spread the body wash, and was not surprised when it settled into her scratches and nipped at her bruises. She couldn't help but smile as she felt the pain surge through her. Irma wasn't a masochist by any stretch of the imagination, but she was happy for the overwhelming physical distraction from her mind.

She rubbed the wash over her body and rinsed thoroughly. She was relieved for the liberation that came with the warm water pulsing over her. She stepped out of the shower and took her super plush towel to her newly exfoliated skin. In that moment, she discovered a new appreciation for soft things, given the figurative beating her skin had just taken.

Irma sat on the toilet seat while she applied her lotion. It stung just a little bit, but since it was made from baby oil, it did more soothing than hurting. She slipped into her satin pajama shirt and fastened the buttons to the top. She pulled up her pajama pants and tied the adjustable waistband as tight as it would go. Pretty tight, considering her twenty-three-inch-waist.

* * *

><p>She put her things back and stepped back into her bedroom. She sat on her bed, and turned toward her pillows to look out the window. The sun was just setting over Heatherfield and the mountains behind it. It couldn't have been any later than five-thirty, although it felt like closer to ten. She shook her head and rolled her eyes while she looked around for her hair dryer. She found it—still plugged in—and turned it on. Ten minutes later, her hair was silky, smooth, and dry. She watched it fall to the top of flesh of her breasts. She had let it grow out since her first days of being a Guardian, and she stopped curling it. She tucked her long bangs behind her ear and turned back around.<p>

Her eyes fell to the door just in time to see her step-mother enter with a tray of food. "What's all this?" she asked.

"I figured you were hungry after the long day you had," Anna replied as she brought the food over. "I made you fresh chicken noodle soup, home-style, just like you like." She set Irma up with her tray. "And strawberry-orange juice… And, and…" Irma could tell she was struggling. "I went out, and I got you an Italian Crème slice…" How long had she been in the shower? "I know it's your favorite."

"Awe," Irma was really touched. "Thank you so much, Anna. You didn't have to do any of this." Irma hugged her, and was surprised at herself. She hadn't hugged Anna—more like pretended to hug her—in almost a year. She smiled softly when Anna hugged her back. She let her go and was not so surprised when Anna started to leave. She knew her step-mother needed time to process that show of emotion. "I really appreciate all this, Anna."

"No… no problem, Irma. Anytime," Anna smiled pleasantly and left her alone.

Irma touched a spoonful of hot broth to her lip and was instantly comforted by its warmth. She took a bite, more like a slurp, and then another, and another. Pretty soon there was so soup left. She had savored the chicken, the vegetables, and the homemade noodles that Anna would spend a whole day making. It was good, and the only thing that could make it better was strawberry-orange juice. She sipped her drink slowly, and when she had downed half her glass she looked at the slice of cake. _'Yum,´ _was all she could think. Anna had even provided her with the proper utensils. Irma took a fork to it, and it tasted absolutely divine.

She enjoyed the last of her meal and sat the tray to the side. She knew Anna would be back for it soon enough. Irma lay back on her bed and absent-mindedly put a hand to her lower stomach as she felt a dull pain there. She dismissed it as the start of her period and thought through the day. She had escaped her monster. She had made it home. She had faced her parents.

And yet with all those feats accomplished, she knew this wasn't even the beginning of her real suffering.


	4. Misery Launch

Chapter 4:

Misery Launch

Irma rubbed her eyes as she yawned. It was the next day, she realized. She had been home for just a few hours, and she was already feeling a little better than when she arrived. She turned over to face her alarm clock, and quickly moved her left forearm out of the way when it started to hurt. This wasn't a new ache, but with all the other cuts and bruises on her body, it was the least of her concerns. She could still move the arm—for the most part—and her functionality had not decreased significantly compared to the amount of pain.

Irma blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the changing light outside. The Sun was just starting to rise, so it couldn't have been too early, considering it was mid-December. Six forty-five was what her alarm clock read. _'Not too bad,' _she thought, moving the covers off her. _'I can still get ready.'_

She cradled her left forearm in her right hand as she sat up and swung her legs over the bed. The arm was feeling a little better—the pain had dulled to a moderate ache, at least—so she let it go as she tried to get up. She stood up, and was immediately doubled over when a sharp pain announced itself. It felt like something had stabbed her in the spine. Irma put a hand to her lower stomach and took a few deep breaths to try to ease the pain. _'This period is going to be worse than I thought.'_

She shook her head as the pain dulled slightly. It was enough to let her go about her business, at least. Irma travelled to her closet, and looked at her clothes. She needed something subtle for her first day back at Sheffield Upper Institute, something that wouldn't draw a lot of attention. _'Tough luck, girlie.' _She reminded herself. Irma had disappeared for three days. Not even her parents knew where she was. SHE wasn't even sure where she was. So to say that she would garner a lot of attention and even more questions was a grave understatement. Irma could handle it. She had to, or risk dropping out of high school.

Irma tucked some hair behind an ear before she decided on some dark wash jeans with a long-sleeved, gray v-neck and a black tank. "Shouldn't be too bad," she murmured while she looked for shoes. She found the pair she was looking for and walked to her dresser. Once she gathered the right undergarments, she went to sit down on her bed as another cramp struck her abdomen. "Okay, maybe I should ask Anna for some Tylenol before I head out."

She got dressed quietly and stood to look at herself in the mirror hanging over her closet door. Irma had managed to strategically cover most of her bruises, except for a small scratch on her right collar bone. She scrunched her lips as she thought about wearing a scarf to cover it. "I never keep those things on, anyway," she reasoned as she decided against it. "I'll be fine."

She looked around for her book bag and couldn't find it. "What the… Oh yeah," she looked down as she remembered what happened to it. "OH, DAMN IT!" she exclaimed. Irma remembered that her phone and her iPod were also missing. That meant that she was left with no refuge. She couldn't pretend to text, which wasn't something she did often but figured she would need to start doing. She couldn't even listen to music while she drowned out all the uncomfortable questions.

'_I have to be crazy for still wanting to do this now,' _Irma thought as she picked up a spare bag and put some supplies in it. _'Pencils, pens, paper, notebook, folder, calculator, highlighters… That should be it.' _She sighed heavily as she opened her blinds and headed out of her bedroom.

She smiled softly as her brother as rushed out of his room. "Oh, uh…" Chris stammered. "Hey, Irma, hope you're feeling better! See you after school!" he said as he rushed downstairs and out the door.

"Okay then," she replied after he was already gone. Irma descended the steps slowly and deliberately. The pain in her stomach aggravated her every step. "Definitely asking for some pain killers," she murmured as she dropped off the last step and headed around the staircase and into the kitchen. "Morning, Anna," she said as she reached for some pop tarts from the cabinet above her step-mother.

"Oh, good morning, Irma. I made you a big breakfast today," Anna said, turning around from the stove. "What are you doing! Why are you dressed?" She leaned against the stove and appraised her step-daughter's clothing. "You can't be going anywhere today… You just got back." Anna shooed her step-child to the table and started piling food on her plate.

"Um, yes… I was going to school…" Irma looked at the massive spread laid out before her. Bacon, eggs, maple sausage, pancakes, home fries, cream of wheat with strawberries and pineapples, and of course her requisite strawberry-orange juice, joined by another glass of ice cold milk.

"Nonsense you just got back. You need time to rest before you jump back into things." Irma couldn't help but agree that was true. But she also knew that she needed to face whatever was in store head on. "Tom!"

"Um, Anna, Dad is—"

"Right here, honey. What's going on?" Tom replied as he emerged from the laundry room. "Oh, hi sweetie. I wasn't expecting you to be up for a few more hours." He leaned over to hug his daughter and kiss her forehead.

"What the… Daddy what're you doing home? You're supposed to be at work." She looked up at her father skeptically.

"I took some time off to spend with you… Where are you headed all dressed up?"

"I'm not dressed up. I just wanted to go to school. I want to get this over with already, and I'm sure I've missed a ton of work by now." Irma looked up at her dad patiently.

"Well, uh… I, um… I had figured you'd want to rest for a few days, and…" Irma turned on the charm—better known as the puppy dog eyes. "Well, Anna, if she's ready to go then I guess… I mean, she should be commended…"

"Thanks, Daddy." She smiled and kissed her father on the cheek. "Yum, Anna this looks great," Irma said as she started to heap cheese—two-cheese Mexican taco blend, her favorite—on to her home fries before crumbling bacon on top and starting to eat furiously. Irma had always had an appetite on her, but over the last two days, it had gotten out of control, even going back to the time she was held captive. She shuddered at the thought and distracted herself with sausage.

"Well, thanks," Anna muttered softly in reply, "but I still think you should stay home today. School can wait."

"Irma, sweetie, I need you to do me a favor after school today," Tom ventured, clearly trying to change the subject and sidetrack his wife.

"What's that, Dad?" she asked before swallowing a large mouthful.

"I need you to come with me to the police station. The missing person's report is still in effect, and Capt. Reynolds needs to see you before he can change that."

"I guess that's the least I can do," she replied.

"Oh, and one other thing…"

"Yes, Daddy?" Irma asked before she shoved another huge spoonful followed directly by a more normal bite.

"Here," Tom lifted a freshly washed turquoise knap sack onto the table.

"Oh, not on the table, Tom—"

"THAT'S MY BACKPACK! Where did you find it!" Irma reached for the bag and smelled the overwhelming scent of Downy April Fresh.

"Relax, Anna, I washed it last night. And Irma, our friend Bobby Davis found it a few steps from… where you…" Tom scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, right. Thanks so much, Dad. I was worried about not having my notes for class today," Irma said to keep her father's mind for wandering down that path again.

"No problem, sweetie. Your phone and iPod are in the side pockets, Kamilla sticker intact." Tom actually managed a smile to go with that last comment, and Irma was glad for that. "So you're really serious about going to school today?" Tom asked his daughter.

"Yeah, Dad, I am," she answered, quickly finishing her enormous breakfast. "The sooner the better." She got up from the table and handed Anna her dirty tableware. She made a B-line for the door.

"What are you going to do when people ask you questions? What will you tell them?" Tom inquired further.

"I already have an answer for that. I'll just say that I'd rather not talk about it. Anyone who respects me will leave it alone after that." She turned to leave.

Anna turned around to face her step-daughter. "Oh, Irma! Will you do something for me? It'll help me a lot," she said.

"Sure, Anna," Irma turned back around. "What is it?"

"Can you… I mean, will you drive your car to school today? I'll pick your brother up," Anna softly pleaded.

Irma smiled softly. She knew what her step-mother was doing. She was terrified for Irma to walk to school, so instead of giving her the usual Something-else-is-going-to-happen rant, Anna simply trusted Irma to do what she asked. And Irma was grateful for that. "Of course, Anna. Anything you want," she said as she headed out the door.

Irma walked to her car and reached in her knap sack for her keys. _'Right where I left them.' _The relief was present on her face. She used her key to unlock her car door before taking off her backpack and letting it rest in the passenger seat beside her. She took in the Royal Pine aroma from the Little Trees that littered her car, in strategic places of course.

She had forgotten how the steering wheel felt beneath her hands. Raw freedom, that was the sensation that pulsed through her. She started her car, and the engine modestly hummed to life. Her Accord wasn't a speedster's dream by any means. It was designed to be dependable, and it more than met its job requirements. The one hundred twenty mile-an-hour notch on the speedometer wasn't unappreciated, either.

Irma fastened her seatbelt—she'd forgotten about that—and made sure her mirrors hadn't been tampered with. "Perfect, just like I left you," she said to her car as she shifted its gears and reversed out of the driveway, leaving the other three cars in her wake. She took a deep breath as she shifted into drive and headed forward towards Sheffield Upper Institute. She looked down at the clock and wasn't surprised to find that she was thirty minutes ahead of schedule.

"Hmm… maybe I should give Hay Lin a ride. I'm sure she's missed me." But then she really thought about it. Hay Lin would just be the beginning of a swarm of people asking her a whole host of questions. Or would she? She had given Irma her space when she was acting strangely more than a week ago. What was to say that she wouldn't give Irma space now? "She is my best friend… If anyone should be the first to know I'm back, it's her."

Irma decided to give her best friend the benefit of what little doubt she had. She drove further to the Silver Dragon—the Lin family restaurant which was on the way to school, anyway—and took the front parking spot, steps away from the main entrance. She headed inside because she knew the restaurant was already open as it began to prepare for lunch. She was welcomed by Yan Lin, Hay Lin's cheerful, carefree grandmother who reminded Irma a lot of herself. Or at least what she would be like at Mrs. Lin's age. "Hello, Mrs. Lin," Irma greeted the old woman. "Is Hay Lin still home? I was wondering if she needed a ride to school."

"Of course. She's in her room. HAY LIN! COMPANY!" Yan Lin yelled up the stairs to the set of rooms the family occupied. She nodded to Irma to let her know she could go up. "Oh, and Irma? I'm glad to have you back," she added with a soft smile.

'_No wonder Hay Lin is so easy to get along with,'_ Irma thought as she climbed the stairs. _'Everyone in her family has tact.' _She strolled down the hallway and into the last room on the right. Hay Lin was facing the window, pulling on a pair of purple-and-yellow-striped knee socks. They perfectly complimented her purple skirt and yellow hooded top. "Okay, Gramma, who is it?" she yelled in response. "Let me get my socks on first!"

"Looks like you could use some help," Irma answered behind her.

"Oh, I—" Hay Lin turned around smoothly, "OH MY GOD!" She leaped across the room and threw her arms around her oldest friend. "Irma I'm so glad to see you! I've missed you so much!"

Irma hugged her friend, but she still struggled against the pain in her left arm. Then she suddenly felt something in her stomach, like butterflies almost. Only stronger. _'Must be nervous from seeing Hay Lin again…' _

"I have been so miserable without you," Hay Lin said, dragging Irma to sit down on her bed. "Class is so boring, and all the other girls can talk about is what THEY think happened to you, which is way off, I'm sure." Wasn't Hay Lin going to come out and ask her where she'd been? "But that's okay because you're back now! I can't wait for first period. It'll be just you and me, like old times. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Irma was able to genuinely smile for the first time in over a week. "Yeah, that sounds great." She was so happy—happy wasn't even the word—to have a friend like Hay Lin, who didn't bring up the painful things that Irma desperately wanted to avoid. She wished her other friends were like that. "Anyway, I just dropped by to see if you needed a ride to school." She lifted up her keys with her right index finger.

"Oh, yeah, school!" Hay Lin jumped up and slung her bag—a suitcase of a purse which held everything Hay Lin could ever need—over her shoulder. "Okay!"

Irma shook her head and got up. Her friend was bubbly, lighthearted, and notoriously scatter-brained. She matched Irma perfectly. They had known each other for more than twelve years now, and had been best friends the whole time. "Okay, come on. We don't want to be late." Irma knew she had plenty of time and would still be early, but she also knew that if she got Hay Lin talking, she'd never make it out. Hay Lin was a Gemini, after all.

Irma descended the stairs coolly, while Hay Lin bounced quietly behind her. Hay Lin grabbed the doughnuts waiting for her—courtesy of her Gramma, of course—before she and Irma waved Yan Lin goodbye and headed out the door. Irma pressed the button to unlock her doors and told Hay Lin to put her book bag on the floor before sitting. She sat down beside her friend and buckled her seatbelt before starting her car and leaving the restaurant.

She pulled into a spot near the door—she had still arrived early enough to be one of the first students at the school—and turned off her car. "I hope this won't be too bad," Irma muttered softly as she reached over for her knapsack.

Hay Lin put her hand on Irma's arm and squeezed. "You'll be fine. I'll make sure of it," she answered. She smiled softly to show Irma how serious she was. "Let's go ahead inside. We might still be able to get a corner seat in First," she continued, unlocking the doors and getting out. Irma followed behind her, slinging her knap sack around her right shoulder. Her left arm was still aching, and she didn't want to overwork it.

Irma and Hay Lin snuck into their First Hour French Class and took two seats in the very back. Irma in the corner, and Hay Lin on her left next to her. Hay Lin started to scarf down her Chinese Doughnuts, much to Irma's amusement. Between small, quiet fits of giggles, she gathered a notebook and pen. She looked down to make sure she was on a blank page.

Then her hand started to move out of control. Before she realized what she was doing, she was writing feverishly:

"_This is my first day of normalcy since it started. This all began eleven days ago, when I first had the dream. It was a bad dream. Not a nightmare. But still a bad dream. There is a dark figure in front of me. I'm on a flat surface. The ground, a pallet, maybe? He steps closer and tries to comfort me. "Don't worry, baby," … "Everything is going to be okay now." … "I'll make it all better." That voice is so scary. Not because I don't know it. But because I know it. I know who it is. I know who is speaking to me, but I CANNOT put a name to this voice. He climbs on top of me. 'Oh God OH God OH GOD,' I think. He can't be doing what I think he's doing. I have to try to move. I have to get away. I have to. I have to. I have to. I can't. I'm trapped. I can't move. I've been ensnared this whole time. He smiles down at me. I know what is coming, and I still cannot stop it. I beg him not to. I beg him. I beg. He doesn't hear me. The pain shoots through me, all encompassing. I woke up. This dream haunted me for days. I stayed silent. My friends noticed the change in me, but I couldn't even think of what to tell them. They probably wouldn't have understood me if I did. Then, everything changed. He took me. I was walking home from school, and he took me. He seized me as casually as you would pluck a fruit from its tree. I tried to scream, but his hand was over my mouth. When he finally let go, it was too late. I was in his home, and there was no one here to save me. For hours, he did nothing. Nothing but looked at me, that is. It was almost as if he couldn't even believe he had captured me, and so easily at that. I couldn't help thinking the same thing. I'm the daughter of a respected policeman. I shouldn't have been taken so easily. But that all faded away when I saw him rise. He had been sitting before, but he rose. He disrobed himself, and I could see what was waiting for me. I started to cry harder, to scream and beg, but it did no good. He climbed on top of me, and I could see what my dream meant. I was about to be violated. I pleaded with him. I begged to keep my virginity. But he took it from me. Brutally. He raped me. Several times. I lost count after a while, and the number would only depress me anyway. This ritual went on for days, it felt like. He would even feed me. He brought me full meals and forced me to eat them. I was too hungry to resist. But by the time I was ready to give up, something changed. I woke up, and heard a voice over me. A different voice. A woman's voice. "You're just a human. You should be on Earth, with the rest of your kind." I couldn't process what she said because suddenly I was able to move. I jumped up. I was somehow wearing my clothes again. "This way! This way!" she cried as she grabbed my hand and dragged me along. I couldn't even see where I was going. All I was aware of was the pull as she heaved me forward, and suddenly a large push and a sudden change of air pressure. I opened my eyes, and was amazed. I was in Heatherfield. Not only was I in Heatherfield, but I was all of three streets away from my house. I made it home. Tom and Anna were worried. They asked me where I was, and I broke down. I took a shower, and the memories haunted me. I still have many scars and bruises. There is something wrong with my left forearm. My stomach has also been weird. But I'm sure it's just the start of my period or something. I mean… No, that's it. The start of my period. Today is the first day back at school. I hope no one asks me too many questions. I pray that people are simply content to have me back and will let me go about my business in peace."_

Irma didn't even have the time to realize what exactly she had been writing. She raised her hand—class had already started by the time she was halfway through it. She even said hello to the teacher—and desperately asked to use the bathroom. Something was wrong, and she had no idea what it was. The teacher let her go, and she slung her knap sack over her shoulder and ran out of the room. She didn't notice when the piece of paper she had been writing on—she tore it out of her notebook as she asked to leave—floated off her desk.

Hay Lin blinked a few times, and watched the paper settle neatly on top of her French verb conjugations. She couldn't help herself as she started to read. The more words she read, the more horrified she became, and the wider her eyes grew.

Irma had barely made it to the bathroom when she pushed open the door to a stall. Luckily no one else was there. Not that she would have cared at this point. She pressed her hands to her stomach as she felt something rising in her throat. She coughed and was terrified to realize that she had coughed blood. Straight. She put a hand to her forehead as her vision blurred, but then suddenly everything went black.

"I need to check on Irma!" Hay Lin yelled as she crushed the paper into her shirt's pocket and sprinted out of the door. She didn't even wait for him to give her permission to leave. She thought quickly. Irma would have had to go to the nearest restroom, with the pain it looked like she was in. So Hay Lin darted into the closest restroom she could find and stopped right where she stood.

Here was her best friend, passed out and covered in blood. On her shirt, on her pants. She didn't know where it was coming from. Only that her mouth was bloody, too. "Oh my God," she murmured. "Oh my God. Oh my GOD!" She dropped down and crawled to her best friend. Hay Lin put Irma's head in her lap and stroked her hair. "You're going to be okay, Irma…" she started to cry. "Just like I said, I'll make sure of it." Hay Lin reached for Irma's phone and dialed 911. Her voice was tearful and strained as she started to speak to the operator. "M-my name is H-H-Hay Lin, and I'm in the first floor bathroom of S-Sh-Shefield I-I-Instit-tute. M-My f-f-friend Irma L-Lair is passed out in here, and she's covered in blood." She recovered her strength. "She needs help!"

"You're at Sheffield Institute, you say? In northern Heatherfield?"

"Yes! Please hurry! She could be dying!"

"I'm sending someone right now, okay? Be on the lookout. I'll stay on the phone with you."

"Okay." Hay Lin nodded into the receiver. And as she murmured to her unconscious friend, she desperately prayed to whichever gods would listen that someone would arrive in time to save her very best friend.


	5. Merciless Exodus, pt 1

Chapter 5:

Merciless Exodus, part I

Irma took a deep breath before she was finally able to open her eyes. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious after she passed out in the bathroom, but it was apparently long enough. She looked around and became immediately aware that she was no longer in the first stall of the first floor restroom tucked safely inside Sheffield Upper Institute. She noticed sterile white walls, a modest window leaking sunlight into the room through its thin drapes, a skimpy blanket covering her waist and legs, a cotton sheet covering plastic mattress beneath her. She heard the beeping of a monitor beside her, and looked down at her body. Her left arm was wrapped in some sort of cast—had she broken it after all?—and there were two needles in her right arm. One was inserted into a vein in the crook of her elbow, and it connected to nothing. That was odd. The other, smaller needle had been carefully placed in her hand. She looked up to see a bag of fluids dripping down a tube into the needle. "Okay…" She said softly.

She was able to move her right hand despite the metal of the needle being clearly visible even through her olive skin. She moved her fingers in and out of a fist several times before she felt strong enough to move her arm. Irma lifted her hand and found herself placing it on her lower stomach for no reason whatsoever. And while the motion itself seemed completely strange to her, what was truly remarkable was what she felt when her hand made contact. She was suddenly privy to a flurry of movement. Or what seemed like movement. Her lower stomach was fluttering out of control. It was like some sort of intestinal discomfort, but much more deliberate. And she was too focused on the fluttering to realize that her stomach was obviously distended. Irma finally stared down at her lower abdomen—really looked at it—and realized how big it was. It looked like she had eaten a huge Thanksgiving dinner. "Breakfast couldn't have lingered that long," she said loudly in disbelief.

Someone entered at that moment. "Oh, Irma, you're awake. My name is Alex, and I'll be your nurse today." The woman smiled sweetly down to Irma before looking down at her charts. "Okay, sweetheart, do you know why you're here today?"

Irma swallowed hard. "I… I… I passed out in the bathroom…"

"That's right." Alex smiled and nodded. She seemed really nice, and Irma liked that about her. She didn't appear to be the typical business-first type of caregiver that Irma had grown used to over the years.

"How long was I…? What's wrong…?" Irma shook her head. There was a more pressing question on her mind. "Who found me?" she finally asked.

"A young girl named Hay Lin? She's says she's your friend—"

"She's my best friend," Irma automatically corrected.

"Well I can certainly agree with your adoration, Irma. She very possibly saved your life. If Hay Lin had called 911 more than a minute later… I wouldn't be speaking to you now." Alex sighed and shook her head. "She's a real hero," she continued as she smiled her trademark soft smile and sat down next to Irma on her hospital bed. "Do you have any questions for me, sugar?"

Irma took a deep breath. Alex was making it hard to be nervous, so she decided to let her guard down. With her, at least. "What's wrong with me? My stomach—"

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask that first." Alex pulled her lips together into a tight line. "Irma, I don't know how to tell you this, so…" she sighed heavily. "You're pregnant. We don't know for sure how far along you are—" Irma gave a sharp gasp. There was no way this could be true. No way. She couldn't be pregnant. She absolutely could not be pregnant. "But your baby, your fetus I mean…" Alex swallowed deeply. Irma knew this had to be hard for her, whatever it was. Alex closed her eyes. "It's stillborn, Irma. Your baby has passed away."

"WHAT?" Irma sat straight up. "What the Hell? How could this have happened? I just felt something move, and—" She violently threw her arms up to protest.

"Don't do that; your arm is broken." Alex grabbed her hands in what could only be described as a nurturing and loving embrace and pulled them down into her lap. "What you felt is called phantom fetal movement. We don't know why it happens and we can't even explain what exactly it is that you feel, but it's not uncommon… Did you… Did you know you were pregnant, Irma?"

She burst into tears. "I had no idea…" She pulled her right hand away and tried to cover her face as she sobbed. She had no clue she was expecting, and yet she still couldn't stop the overwhelming feelings of love and heartbreak that started to consume her. "My baby…" Her chest had begun to ache from the gut wrenching cries that escaped her throat. She took a few deep breaths to try to ease the pain and stop crying so loudly. "What was I… what was… was it…?"

Alex knew what she was getting at. She pulled her lips tightly and decided that while it may have been wrong to tell her, Irma had a right to know. She trusted Alex and was looking to her to tell the truth, no matter how painful. "It was a boy." She swallowed and looked away.

Irma looked down at her stomach and back at Alex. "I'm still… I mean… is he still…"

"Yes, he is still there." She patted Irma's belly and watched her flinch at her touch. "We need you to stay overnight so that we can have the procedure in the morning."

"What procedure? What are you going to do to me?" Irma asked desperately, still very raw and extremely terrified.

"You have to have a D & C… If everything doesn't come out soon, you could catch a deadly infection. So to prevent that, we're going to put you to sleep, and then we're going to… take care of it."

"I don't want to know… how you take care of it."

"I wasn't going to tell you," Alex said as she smiled down at Irma, and Irma actually smiled back. She seemed to be on the same wavelength as the nurse and was very grateful for that. Irma really felt like Alex cared about her. Her superior powers of intuition didn't hurt her guess, either. "There's something else I need to talk to you about."

"What's that?"

"When we were performing your physical exam, we noticed some… heavy bruising… on your thighs, and around your private area."

Irma gasped sharply. _'Please don't ask what I think you're going to ask; please don't ask what I think you're going to ask please don't—'_

"Do you want to talk about it? I'm really worried about what might have happened to you, but of course I can't make you tell me anything… It will help me help you if I know what exactly I'm dealing with, though…"

Irma decided that she could trust Alex enough to tell her what went on. Alex had been honest with her, and it was her chance to return the favor. She looked down as she started to cry just a little harder. "I was… he… I…" Irma swallowed. It was hard to give voice to the words.

"It's okay, honey, take your time." Alex ran her fingers across Irma's hand in her lap.

Just when Irma was about to tell the nurse what had happened, another woman walked in. She was dressed similarly to Alex, in purple and black scrubs, so Irma figured she had to be another nurse. She was not, however, as ingratiating as Alex. "Oh, good, she's up. I would have hated to wake her." She sat promptly in the chair beside Irma's bed. Irma noticed that Alex looked as surprised as she did. "I've got some questions for you, Miss Lair, and I won't waste your time. Who raped you?"

Irma's jaw fell.

"We know you were raped, Irma. There's no use denying anything. Who did it?"

Irma blinked and let her mouth hang agape.

"Is he one of your family members? Is he someone you know? You can tell us."

Irma didn't move a single muscle.

"This isn't going anywhere. Irma you were raped, and you are pregnant. You need to tell us who did this to you so we can—"

"MIRANDA!" Alex roared. She had finally gotten her wits back about her, and was furious. "I am the Head Nurse in this hospital—"

"Head Nurses shouldn't be treating patients—"

"And **I** will decide what goes on in here," she continued deliberately. "I will see you after your shift ends… I need to speak with my patient in private." She added extra emphasis to the words 'in private' and watched the other woman leave.

Irma looked down at her stomach and let her lips settle into a frown. "You shouldn't be treating me. You have other things to do. I'm just—"

"I'm treating you because I care about you, dear, and that's all I'll hear on the subject." She smiled softly, and Irma could tell from her eyes that she was pleading for her forgiveness.

Irma sighed heavily. "I don't know who raped me. He never let me see his face."

Alex squeezed her hands gently. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know." She got up and wrote a few things on Irma's chart. "Oh, and late visiting hours are about to start soon. Your parents are here, and… Hay Lin," she was trying to make sure he had the name right, "is here, too. Everyone else was turned away; only family is allowed right now. I made an exception for Hay Lin, of course."

Irma let a small smile tug at the corners of her lips. "Thanks so much, Alex. For everything."

"No problem, honey. I'll be back as soon as they leave. I'll send your parents in first," she said as she opened the door. She turned back with a wink. "Get it over with."

Irma grinned and nodded as she settled back down on the bed beneath her. She swallowed as she closed her eyes and waited for her parents. They didn't disappoint, and were beside her bed before the door closed behind them. "Irma, sweetheart," Tom started.

"I'm fine, Daddy," Irma replied as she opened her eyes and looked at her father.

"But your arm, it's broken. And they said you'd been… and that you're…"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Irma watched her step-mother put a hand on Tom's shoulder. He sat down and rubbed his face with his hands. Anna gave her step-daughter a warm smile. "We're just glad you're going to be all right, and we aren't going to make you talk about anything you don't want to talk about. Is there anything you need us to get you? I can go out and get you an Italian Crème slice?"

"I have to have surgery tomorrow morning. No food or drink for twelve hours." Irma grinned. "But thank you so much, Anna. I can't tell you how much I value the thought."

"We'll be here before and after your surgery," Tom said.

"And I'll have a fresh slice waiting for you," Anna said cheerfully. She knew Irma could never resist good cake, and their neighborhood grocer had the best Italian Crème cake this side of Venice.

"Thanks."

"We'll let you get some rest now, and we'll be here bright and early tomorrow." Tom rose and hugged his daughter tightly. Irma let the faint smell of his cologne comfort her as she hugged him back. She reached for Anna and hugged her before watching her parents leave.

Irma sighed heavily. She knew Hay Lin would be in shortly, and she hoped her friend wasn't too upset. Irma was still alive, and she needed a cast and one minor—okay, major—surgery. But she was here, and that should count for something. Irma took another deep breath and relaxed her shoulders while she waited for Hay Lin to come in.

Hay Lin came in a few minutes later, and she was still visibly upset. Her eyes were red, and it looked like she had been crying all day. Irma also noticed that she had spots of dried blood on her clothes. She pulled the chair away from Irma and sat down. It was almost like she was afraid to come near her.

"Hay Lin, I—" Irma watched as her best friend burst into tears. She moved the covers off and moved closer to Hay Lin before she hugged her. "I'm fine, Hay Lin."

"You're not," Hay Lin said tearfully as she looked down at Irma's stomach. "The nurse told me what happened to you in the bathroom. She said you'd started to have a miscarriage…" Hay Lin looked down at her purple and yellow striped socks. "I didn't believe her at first. I told her she must have been on drugs or something, but then…" she swallowed. "Then I remembered this." She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from the pocket of her yellow shirt. It was littered with a few drops of blood that must have seeped through her top. "And it started to make a little more sense." She unfolded the paper, and Irma was shocked to find that it was covered with her own handwriting. "This flew on my desk as you left French class… I couldn't help reading it."

Irma grabbed the paper and was horrified to find that she had relayed the entirety of her chilling saga on one page. "Oh my God… You read this? You know?" She desperately looked up at her friend.

Hay Lin nodded silently and swallowed. "I didn't tell anyone. Not the teacher, or the paramedics, or your nurse. No one. The girls asked about you, but I told them you were too tired for visitors."

"Thanks, Hay Lin. I don't know that I can deal with them just yet… And thanks for… you know."

"It's your secret. You can tell people when you're ready."

Irma smiled at her friend.

"How are you feeling? Are you nervous about your surgery tomorrow?"

She nodded. "I've never had any kind of surgery before, and for it to be something like this…" She looked down at her stomach, and she felt another kick. Another ghostly movement.

Hay Lin gasped. "Was that…?"

"No… It's called Phantom Fetal Movement. My baby is dead."

"Oh, Irma, I'm so sorry." Hay Lin rubbed her shoulder.

"It's better this way."

Hay Lin couldn't rightfully argue with that. However Irma felt was how she felt, and Hay Lin couldn't make her feel any differently. Besides, Hay Lin had never been in this situation before, so she had no idea how she would have felt if this had happened to her. "Well, I should probably get going. I know you're going to need lots of rest before your surgery tomorrow, and I don't want to be a bother."

"You're never a bother. Thanks anyway."

Hay Lin was halfway to the door when she remembered something. "Oh, Irma. I hope you don't mind, but I drove your car here." She tossed Irma's keys to her, and watched her catch them with her right hand. "I figured you wouldn't want many more people to know you'd come to school today."

"You're right, and thanks so much for that." Irma threw the keys back to her. "But I'll probably be too drugged up to drive tomorrow, and my parents will be here anyway."

"What do you want me to do, then?"

"You can take it back to your house. I'll call you when I get home, okay?" Irma completely ignored the fact that her friend was only in the possession of a permit—which was about to expire—and drove her car illegally. It was the thought that counted, and Hay Lin was always thoughtful.

"Okay, then." Hay Lin took a few steps back to hug her friend before starting for the door again. "I'm glad you're all right, Irma," she said as she left.

Irma sighed softly. That wasn't too bad at all. She'd expected Hay Lin to be a total wreck, and she was relieved to see that her friend was okay. She tucked some hair behind her ear as she looked down at her stomach, which now served as a tomb for her dead child. "Just don't think about it. After this surgery tomorrow, you can forget this whole thing ever happened."

Irma comforted herself with that mantra as she crawled back into bed and fell asleep.


	6. Merciless Exodus, pt 2

Chapter 6:

Merciless Exodus, Part II

Irma sat silently while Alex ran through the discharge papers with her. Irma was to be on bed rest for at least three days, with her movement restricted to using the restroom and showering, no exceptions. Since Anna worked from home, no one worried about Irma being left alone. She wasn't particularly looking forward to being babysat, but she was too emotionally raw to process what was going on in those moments.

"After three days, she'll have her first follow-up, and assuming everything goes well, she should be cleared for limited movement, and if necessary, another follow-up at that point. You can fill her prescriptions from any pharmacy, but it would be better if you filled them with me. We would also like for you to start therapy, but of course that's completely optional… and of course all this information will be in your discharge papers."

Tom responded before Irma got the chance. "Thank you so much Alex, for—"

"I know this is a lot to handle, Mr. Lair, but Irma needs her family's support right now. We have peer groups for parents and family members, based right here in the hospital. I can"

"Thank you for everything. I'll be sure to call you if we have any questions."

"Please do." Alex smiled her signature soft smile. She kneeled down beside Irma's wheelchair to speak with her. "Here, let me give you my cell number." She took the girl's hand and wrote her phone number on the inside of her palm. "If you ever need to talk, just call me. Whatever we say will be between the two of us. I promise." Irma nodded and smiled as Tom wheeled her from the hospital room to the main exit. Alex followed behind to retrieved the wheelchair when they were done with it. "Oh, and Irma?"

She turned to look at the nurse who had kept her company and made her stay a little better. "Yes?"

"Make sure you take your pain meds every four hours, like the instructions say, even if you aren't in pain. It will take them longer to work if you're already hurting, all right?" Irma nodded.

"We've already gone over it. I'll have my wife make sure she's taking them like she should." Irma let a grin tug at the corner of her lips. From the sounds of things, she'd be in charge of her medication, and she liked that. She needed some control in all of this. "Are you ready to go, sweetheart?"

"I'm ready, Daddy." Irma refused her father's hand and got out of the wheelchair by herself. It was a simple task—insignificant to most—but it was Irma's first step on her road to recovery. _'Even the longest journeys start with one step,'_ she reminded herself. She allowed her father to help her into Anna's Highlander when she felt light-headed—she wasn't Wonder Woman, after all—and waved Alex goodbye as the nurse walked back inside. Tom climbed into the driver's seat beside her. As he started driving, Irma watched Heatherfield fly by her. She watched its tall office buildings fade into one large, bulky creature. When they reached the outskirts, Irma saw the commercial properties turn into houses, and the houses spread father apart.

As he drove through Heatherfield, Tom Lair wondered how he should—or could—engage his daughter. He had so many questions for Irma. Questions only she could answer. He didn't want to push her too hard or too fast, though. She had clearly been through a lot. He didn't even know how to begin to approach it. Would she feel better talking about it? Or did she need the silence to find peace? Was talking about it enough to help her think through it? Or did she need the silence to distract her from her own thoughts? He decided to risk it. "Irma, how are you feeling—"

"I have no clue as to who kidnapped me. He never let me see his face… And I didn't have the slightest idea I was pregnant, either. I would have tried…" His daughter put her hand over her mouth. It was obvious that she'd had this prepared, had practiced many times even. Delivering the speech for real, however, was a different matter altogether.

"…" Tom let his mouth close. He had wanted to continue the conversation, and he was touched that she shared even this much with him. But he still had so many questions; he had no idea where to start, so he decided to keep it light. "Your friends have been asking about you… I told them they could bring your schoolwork over when you got home…"

"Thank you, Daddy. I'll need to get a jump start to get caught back up. I missed a lot."

"There's no rush, sweetheart. The girls didn't say exactly when they were coming, and I want you to rest. Besides, it's Christmas Break now anyway, so you'll have plenty of time to finish everything… Your teachers already know what's going on, and—"

"You told them?"

"Only that you'd be out for a while. They want you to get better first, then you can focus on your schoolwork."

"I won't be able to rest knowing I've got so much to do." Tom couldn't hide a smile. Irma was getting more and more like him as she got older. She was still as funny and spontaneous and sweet as she had ever been—Gabrielle's personality ran deep in her—but she had started to become more focused and disciplined as time went on. He knew he was being a little selfish, but he was glad that she had inherited something from him. Tom loved Gabrielle and was still in love with her to an extent—one never really forgets his first love—but there was only so much of Gabby he could take. He had a second wife, after all, and his upcoming schedule didn't have any openings for a bout of insanity.

"I guess it would be more logical if you worked on it while you're on bed rest. We wouldn't want the time to go to waste." Irma smiled. Her father always did listen to reason, and he also hated wasting time. "Time is the only thing you can't get back once it's gone, you know."

Her smile widened. "Yes, Daddy, I know." Tom found his street and turned, and ten seconds later they were in the driveway. Anna opened the door for them, and Chris ran to greet his big sister. Once Tom got her out and on her feet, she hugged Chris and kissed the top of his head. He ran back inside as Tom got his daughter balanced so she could go inside. Irma's steps were shaky and a little bit weak, but at least she was taking them. _'I'll be better in no time,'_ she thought to herself.

Irma wrapped her free arm around her step-mother as the woman stepped aside to let her in. Irma thought about sitting down in the living room, but she knew it'd be that much harder getting up later. So she pushed herself and asked her father to take her upstairs to shower. On the way, she stopped to scribble Alex's number on sticky note before Tom took her hand.

Tom led her to the bathroom and let her sit down on the closed toilet. Irma let out a sigh and tried to distract herself with the paint on the wall. It didn't work, though, so Irma was relieved when Tom came back in with some fresh night clothes, her lotion, and deodorant. He sat her stuff down on the sink and helped his daughter up so she could undress and shower. He turned on the water, and she grabbed the towel rack to keep steady.

Her father stepped outside as she started to undress, and Irma was glad for that. None of her bruises had lightened since she went to the hospital, and none of her cuts had faded. Before she could take refuge in the shower, though, Tom came back inside with a plastic bag. "I forgot about your cast, Irma. You need this to keep it dry…" His eyes fell from her face down to her body and the bruises laid bare before him. She turned away from him and bit her lip as the tears welled. "We don't want your cast to get wet." He sat the bag on the back of the toilet and promptly turned to leave.

Irma took the bag and wrapped it around her arm. When she stepped in the shower, she started to cry. She didn't want her father to see her this way. The look in his eyes broke her heart. Irma knew he bruises wouldn't fade anytime soon, but he didn't need to find out like this. Her father loved her with everything he had, and Irma knew he was in serious pain after seeing her. She spent her entire shower trying to stop crying.

On the other side of the door, Tom let the tears slide down his face as he slid to the floor. He hadn't cried in almost ten years, but that was because he hadn't had a reason to cry in ten years. Seeing his daughter's battered broken body was more than enough reason for him to shed tears. He knew it was bad—abduction isn't child's play—and yet he had no idea that such awful things could happen to HIS daughter. He could have protected her. He SHOULD have protected her. He was her father. He was the one person Irma could count on no matter what, and he let her down when she needed him most. As he slid his hand over his face to wipe the tears, he struggled with his emotions. The policeman in him told him that nothing he did or didn't do was going to keep Irma from getting abducted, but the father in him was screaming that if he was still alive, there was always more that could've been done.

He turned his ear to the door. Something was wrong. He rushed back into the bathroom and reached the shower just in time to catch his daughter before she fell. She reached for a towel, and he helped her cover up. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I just slipped—"

"Don't worry about it, baby. I'm just glad I was nearby. I'll get Anna to help you—"

"No, no. You can stay. Will you help me to my room? It's cold in here."

"Sure thing." Tom managed a weak smile as he picked his daughter up. Irma tried not to flinch when he touched her. "You're getting too big for me, Irma. Pretty soon I won't be able to carry you anymore." He took Irma to her room and sat her down on her bed. He was about to leave, but Irma called him back. As she dressed, she told him about the attack. She figured that if she told him everything she knew now, he wouldn't feel the need to keep asking her what happened. And that might be better for the both of them.

After Irma finished her story, Tom left her alone with her thoughts. She didn't get a chance to do much thinking, however, because five minutes after her father left, her cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"Irma? It's Hay Lin… are you okay?"

Irma nodded against the phone. "I'm fine." Maybe if she let the others think that, she'd start to think so, too. "What's up?"

"Well, I still have your car, and the girls and I got your homework together… do you mind if we stop by to drop it off?"

Irma sighed heavily. She didn't particularly feel like being bothered, but she did need to get her car back and start on the makeup work. More than that, if she dealt with the others now it would be one less thing she'd have to do later. "Yeah… yeah that's okay."

"Great! We'll be there in ten."

"Okay." Irma sighed again as she hung up the phone. She went downstairs and found her father reading in the den. "Daddy, the girls will be over soon with my homework… Is that okay?"

Tom looked up from his paper for a moment. "That's fine, sweetheart," he said as he smiled at his daughter.

Irma went back up to her room and busied herself tidying up. It wasn't long after she sat down on her bed that she heard the doorbell ring, and her friends appeared in her doorway. She waved them inside.

Taranee took a seat at Irma's desk; Cornelia sat on one of Irma's beanbag chairs. Will took a window seat, and Hay Lin sat down on the bed next to Irma. The girls looked up to see Anna knock on the open door. "I figured you girls could use a little snack. Fresh from the oven," she said with a smile as she offered the girls a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Tom was right behind her with a tray and five glasses of milk. The girls all murmured soft thank-yous as they left.

"How are you feeling?" Taranee asked nervously. Neither she, nor Will, nor Cornelia actually knew what happened to their friend and fellow Guardian. Only Hay Lin was privy to that information.

Irma sighed softly. "I'm okay… Glad to be home," she said as she smiled weakly. Irma tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as an awkward silence fell over the room.

Ten minutes passed before anyone spoke up. "What… what happened to you?" Cornelia ventured.

Hay Lin and Irma looked at each other nervously as Hay Lin bit her lip. "I, um… I don't want to talk about it." Irma couldn't blame her for asking. She knew her friends only wanted to help. But by now she was already tired of the questions. It wasn't so much their curiosity as the memories their inquiries resurrected. Memories that Irma was trying hard to forget. "I'm sorry…"

"It's okay… You can tell us when you're ready," Will said.

"We brought your homework… And your finals. Since you were in the hospital and missed the review days, the teachers are letting you have take-home tests," Taranee said to change the subject.

"Oh, that's so great." Irma said as Taranee handed her a pile of papers and books. She couldn't help but smile as she looked over the stack of paperwork in front of her. She would have plenty of work to keep her distracted over the next few days.

"Let me know if you need any help. That Algebra final was pretty brutal, and I don't know if Mrs. Lester gave you the same test or not," Taranee continued.

Irma nodded. "Will do. Thanks so much guys."

"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Here," Hay Lin fumbled around in her pockets before coming up with a set of keys and handing them to Irma. "No dents, no scratches, no dirt," she said proudly.

"Well, thank you," Irma said as she managed a smile. She looked down and bit her lip. "Is it bad… at school? I mean… are people asking about me?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," Cornelia answered. "I mean, first you go missing for three days, and then when you do come back, Hay Lin finds you passed out in the bathroom?" Seeing the look on Irma's face made Cornelia change her tune. She sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that…" She tried to think of something that would make her friend feel better. "And look at the bright side. It's Christmas Break, right? By the time school starts back I bet they'll have forgotten all about it," she offered as she smiled weakly.

"Maybe," Irma said flatly.

Will could tell that things were getting awkward, and that Irma needed some space. "Well, we should get going. You've got a lot to do, and more importantly we know you need your rest," she said as she stood up. The others followed her lead and stood as well. "We'll try to stop by later this week, okay?"

"Okay," Irma answered. "Here, let me walk you guys out." She followed her friends out of her room and down the stairs to the front door. She opened the door and watched the girls file out one by one. "Thanks for bringing me my things," she said.

"No problem!" Taranee called back.

Irma sighed as she leaned against the doorway. "Hay Lin, wait!" She suddenly felt the need to talk, and she knew Hay Lin was the only person she could talk to at that moment.

Hay Lin was back on Irma's doorstep within seconds. "Is everything all right?"

"I, um… Can I talk to you?" Hay Lin was surprised to see tears welling in her friend's eyes.

"Oh, of course. Come on." Hay Lin led Irma back to her room and closed and locked the door. Irma sat on one of the window seats, and Hay Lin joined her. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"I just… I just feel so confused…" Irma began as she put a put a hand to her lower stomach. "I mean… It just seems so unreal. I can't believe that I'm… that I WAS pregnant. I mean, there is no way I could have been THAT far along after three days. I mean, I was… I… I never…" Irma shook her head.

Hay Lin put her hand on Irma's. "I know." Irma didn't have to say it. Hay Lin knew her best friend wasn't that kind of girl. "I can't make much sense of it, either. It really just doesn't add up… I wish there was some way we could figure this whole thing out."

"I know, I do, too. I—wait. Do you still have that paper? The one I wrote in French class?"

"Uh… I think so… Let me see." Hay Lin looked through her giant bag and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper with a few brown droplets of blood on it. "Oh, yeah. Here it is." Hay Lin unfolded the paper and handed it to Irma. "Do you think there are some answers here?"

"There could be," Irma said as she read over the paper again. "Oh, here! Look." She pointed Hay Lin to a line in the middle of the page and started to read. "…_ by the time I was ready to give up, something changed. I woke up, and heard a voice over me. A different voice. A woman's voice. 'You're just a human. You should be on Earth, with the rest of your kind.' I couldn't process what she said because suddenly I was able to move. I jumped up. I was somehow wearing my clothes again. 'This way! This way!' she cried as she grabbed my hand and dragged me along. I couldn't even see where I was going. All I was aware of was the pull as she heaved me forward, and suddenly a large push and a sudden change of air pressure." _

Hay Lin blinked. "Wait a minute… 'You're just a human? You should be on Earth?'"

"That means…" Irma tucked some hair behind her ear. "That means I must have been on Meridian! That could explain how I got so far along so fast. I mean, didn't your grandmother say that time travels faster in Meridian?"

"Yeah, it does, but that leaves us with even more questions… Who on Meridian would want to hurt you? Everyone loves us. We're practically heroes. The thought that someone could hurt you… let alone someone we're supposed to be helping… it just doesn't make sense."

Irma sighed. "You're right. It doesn't make much sense, but we know more now than we did when we started…" she said as she shrugged, "and that's got to count for something." Irma was trying to be optimistic.

Hay Lin put her hand on her best friend's shoulder. "We're going to figure this thing out. I promise."

"Thanks," Irma said softly. She looked down and didn't bother to wipe the tears that suddenly flooded her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"It's…" Irma sighed. "It's more than not knowing. I was PREGNANT Hay Lin. I was going to have a BABY. Can you believe that? I'm sixteen years old. I'm not ready to be a mother… but…" Her lips trembled. "He was my baby…" she said as she finally broke down. This was the first time Irma really thought about what she lost. This was the first chance she had to really grieve for her child.

Hay Lin wrapped her arms around her fellow Guardian and pulled her into a tight hug. "It's going to be okay, Irma," she said as she rubbed her back. "I know it's hard, and I know it hurts, but your baby is in a better place. You'll see him again, I promise. Remember, everything happens for a reason. We may not understand, but it's for the greater good that things happened the way they did. You said it yourself, that it was better this way." Hay Lin's words were warm, soothing, and comforting. They didn't just numb the pain; they actually made Irma feel better, and she would be forever grateful to Hay Lin for helping her through such a hard time. "And think of it this way. Things are so bad now that they can only get better from here, right?"

Irma wiped her eyes and sniffled. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks so much, Hay Lin. For everything. I don't know that I can get through this without you."

"Anytime. I'm just glad I can help."

Irma smiled softly to herself. She knew that with friends like Hay Lin by her side, it would only be a matter of time before she was able to put this whole thing behind her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Reviews are always appreciated. Thank you reading!


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